I consider myself fortunate that so far, nobody in family has lived with dementia. Many people working in aging services are there after having personal experience caring for a loved one. Strangely enough, my first experience interacting with someone living with dementia was in college, during an internship in a CCRC my senior year.
Topics: compassionate touch, Personhood, caregiving connection, quality of care
Matt Reiners is the Co-Founder and Vice President of Eversound, a hearing solution company dedicated to improving the quality of life for elders. Recently, he had a conversation with our own Laura Ellen Christian about the future of training and education for the senior living industry.
Topics: person-first employee education, staff development, learning to action
We are talking a lot about empathy lately. I see many posts, blogs and articles on the subject because so many feel that it is severely lacking in this current time. Social psychologists are having a field day dissecting what has gone so wrong, and why.
Topics: empathy, Skill Building
AGE-u-cate's CEO Pam Brandon sent each team member a jar containing one inspirational quote per week for 52 weeks. Every Monday, we unroll our scroll and read the message to the team. You may have seen Laura Ellen Christian on LinkedIn every Monday sharing a video reflection on her inspirational quote.
It is time to get serious about changing the onboarding process for new hires, and there is no time to lose. Maggie Keen, Vice President of Corporate Development at MissionCare Collective delivered this impactful message for AGE-u-cate's February Virtual Road Trip entitled, "Building Culture: Rethinking recruitment, onboarding, and retention to drive better care and a better workplace."
Topics: retention, employee retention, employee engagement
Describing empathy as a lubricant creates visuals in my head like the annoying squeaky door hinge that finally gets some W-D40. A lubricant softens rough edges, makes things work better, and a little bit goes a long way. I think the same is true when we approach situations that we encounter in work and life from a place of empathy.
Topics: empathy, Empathy Training, REVEAL Aging, Dementia Live™️, cultivating empathy
I have experienced moments of confusion, like being on a business trip and waking up in an unfamiliar place and needing a moment to orient myself. One time (or possibly more than once), I forgot where I parked my car at a large shopping mall. With so many entrances to choose from, I could not remember which one I walked through to enter the mall. Just a few weeks ago, I went through half of a day believing it was Thursday, and it was Wednesday- an entire HALF DAY!
Topics: culture change, Empathy Training, dementia training, employee training, attitudes, actions
The 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Ardem Patapoutian. PhD, a neuroscientist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA for discovering cell receptors that enable people to sense heat, cold, pain, touch and sound. The award¹ is shared with David Julius, a physiologist at the University of California San Francisco.
Topics: compassionate touch, touchisgoodmedicine, scienceoftouch
I found advice from Forbes, dated December 31, 2018, that I believe is spot on about setting 2022 new year's resolutions, and it goes like this, "This year, set goals instead of resolutions."
Topics: Workforce Development, aging services workforce, employee retention
With all due respect Len King, I never knew you were this cool! You see, my high school band director (late 1970s) directs the Arizona Swing Kings Jazz Orchestra, and is still inspiring musicians to perform at the top of their game. He is also the founder of the Chicago Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, back in the day.
